#he wanted windclan to stay exiled that one time

[yuridovewing]

gotta say though, the way mapleshade kinda (???) tried to hurt crookedstar with oakheart’s affair was pretty lame. yeah your mom had her head bashed against the rocks. your dad died slowly of cancer. your wife and children will die too. and your brother got kinda horny one night and made himself a single father

[veiledaura]

Crowfeather's Greed (Evil AU)

In this parallel world, Crowfeather's life doesn't diverge until much later. It remains identical until the fateful moment when Breezepelt tries to kill Lionblaze.

This time, Crowfeather isn't fast enough. He fails to save his Thunderclan son. Disgusted at Breezepelt, he heavily scars him and chases him away. He shouts that he should consider himself exiled. However, after a while, Breezepelt limps back to Windclan camp. He knows Crowfeather has no authority to banish him and pleads his case to Onestar.

The leader is unsure, as Lionblaze wasn't a Windclan warrior, but he was their ally at the time. However, Breezepelt's fate is already sealed. Jayfeather is enraged by his brother's death and marches to the trial. He reveals Breezepelt's attack on the Moonpool. Even Onestar can't make excuses for that and turns the traitor away.

Nightcloud is unable to handle all this. The mates get into the worst argument they ever had. Nightcloud blames Crowfeather for their son's downfall. Meanwhile, Crowfeather hates that she downplays Lionblaze's murder. The two get into a skirmish and need to be separated. After they calm down, Nightcloud declares they are no longer mates and that he is dead to her.

Crowfeather becomes more isolated than ever. All his loved ones were either dead or estranged. Even Leafpool, who had the most sympathy for him, didn't know what to say anymore. In the depth of his despair, Crowfeather fell into his old ways. He rebounded. He latched on. Perhaps he could fix the hole in his heart if he found a new love.

Like Crowfeather, Gorsetail had lost two kits in the Great Battle and despised Breezepelt. They bonded over their grief and hatred, creating a broken union. Eventually, Gorsetail revealed her own forbidden romance, and she understood Crowfeather's struggle. Nightcloud was in disbelief. She didn't expect him to hit this new low. How could Crowfeather love his son's harshest critic?

Nightcloud admitted Windclan didn't feel like home anymore with Crowfeather around. She said it in a way; she hoped the grey tom would volunteer to leave Windclan instead of her. When he didn't pick up on it, she admitted she was tempted to join Breezepelt as a rogue. Crowfeather snapped, "Well, go then," as he intended to have a future with Gorsetail. Heartbroken, Nightcloud left that same day.

Crowfeather buried his regret and numbly refocused on Gorsetail. In their whirlwind of emotions, they quickly ended up with a pregnancy. Crowfeather pushed it mainly because he wanted a "do-over." Soon, their two daughters were born. Mottlekit was a grey and cream tortoiseshell, and Whiskkit was a plain white she-cat.

Crowfeather wanted to avoid a repeat of Breezepelt, so he went to the opposite extreme. He got involved in every aspect of his kits' lives and ensured they stayed on the right track. He ended up becoming a perfectionist. He would demand his kits' sleep at certain times and stop any games he considered a "waste of time." He said he was proud of them and only doing it for their benefit. His daughters got confused at the inconsistency between his loving words and harsh actions.

As for their mother, Crowfeather's relationship with her was becoming stagnant. They got together because of their shared grief, but once those emotions subsided, there was nothing left. When Gorsetail wanted to go on exciting adventures, Crowfeather wanted to stay home. Their personalities simply weren't compatible. If they weren't discussing their daughters, there would be awkward silence. Gorsetail kept asking for breaks, but she never officially broke it off. Crowfeather seemed eager for the relationship to work and promised it could improve.

Around the same time, Crowfeather was eying up the deputy position due to Onestar's advancing age. If he couldn't land the role, he hoped one of his daughters could fulfil his ambitions. At the very least, he wanted Mottlekit and Whiskkit to be model warriors. They would be the finest hunters, fighters and mentors. So Crowfeather wanted to give them a head start. As soon as they turned six moons, Crowfeather secretly gave them extra training. He said they couldn't tell anyone else, as he was giving them an unfair advantage. He taught them moves that were too advanced for their age.

Whiskpaw was naturally shy but became worse under her father's pressure. Soon, she admitted that she didn't want the training at all. Crowfeather accused her of cowardice and ended up getting angrier. In the past, he had rare moments where he was too physical with Breezepaw. With his temper worse than ever, Crowfeather constantly cuffed Whiskpaw's ear and snarled at her.

Mottlepaw had ambitions similar to Crowfeather's and could thrive under his expectations. She closely listened to his advice and even improved upon it. Mottlepaw showed more talent than Crowfeather, and he didn't know how to teach her more. Unlike her father, she wasn't impulsive. She was cold and calculating. She could make a step-by-step plan about becoming deputy. Mottlepaw swore off a mate and kits until her later years.

When Mottlepaw discovers Crowfeather's forbidden romances, she calls him an embarrassment and says he is undeserving of the deputy role. He wasn't the cat he portrayed himself to be. Mottlepaw and Whiskpaw begin ditching their father's training sessions. When Crowfeather convinces them to come occasionally, he is rougher than ever to make up for lost time. He accidentally ends up splitting Whiskpaw's ear.

Whiskpaw had a panic attack and refused to leave the apprentice's den. Mottlepaw wanted to tell everyone in camp about their illegal training. However, Whiskpaw begged her sister not to do it. She was too scared to rock the boat and potentially deprive Crowfeather of the deputy position. Instead, she said she forgave Crowfeather. Whiskpaw becomes a Medicine Cat to get away from the training.

Moons passed, and Crowfeather remained estranged from his daughters. Gorsetail never knew about their training, so she didn't understand the distance. She assumed Crowfeather was too damaged by his past and that asking him to act as a normal father was too much. The sisters earned their full names of Whisknose and Mottlesky.

During this time, the Clans were fighting the Kin. Onestar's secret was finally revealed, and he sacrificed himself to kill Darktail. Harestar became leader and Crowfeather's dreams became true. He was appointed deputy, even if his daughters knew he didn't deserve it. For once, his life was looking bright.

However, it was short-lived. After the Kin's defeat, Skyclan made their grand return. Crowfeather hadn't seen them in person, but his clanmates relaid alarming news. Breezepelt and Nightcloud had been spotted among Skyclan's ranks. They must have stumbled upon the fifth Clan as rogues. In their desperation, the pair had put aside their judgement of kittypets.

Crowfeather was terrified of Breezepelt discovering his new family and what he could do to them. He decided he would be proactive and take matters into his own hands. He already didn't like the idea of Skyclan moving to the Lake. However, Breezepelt pushed his stance from neutral to hostile. As deputy, he convinced Harestar that Skyclan should return to the gorge. Windclan and Shadowclan allied together to drive the fifth Clan out.

Mottlesky was chosen to be on the battle patrol. Crowfeather remained at her side to act as her bodyguard. As Breezepelt defended Skyclan camp, he spotted Crowfeather and a strange she-cat. He saw their similarities and wondered if it was his daughter. Breezepelt charged at his father and demanded to know the truth. The black tom wasn't looking at Mottlesky, but his close proximity and general anger were enough. Crowfeather registered him as a threat. Having flashbacks of the attacks on Lionblaze and Jayfeather, he sprang at his wayward son.

Crowfeather reminded Breezepelt of his exile and said he should have never returned. He can't be trusted to not kill again. His son argues he has matured and has a new mate. It falls on deaf ears as Crowfeather slashes his throat. Mottlesky witnessed everything. She doesn't have much sympathy for a murderer, but the level of violence from her father shocked her. She reminds Crowfeather that it wasn't self-defence.

Suddenly, Nightcloud wails out and attacks with a vengeance. Mottlesky and Crowfeather are forced to work together, fending off the grieving mother. Around the battlefield, Windclan realises a father has murdered his own son. Morale plummets, and they soon retreat. As they head back to camp, Crowfeather's clanmates ask if the battle was necessary and if he did it to satisfy his personal grudge.

When Whisknose hears about Breezepelt's murder, she has a breakdown. She yowls that her forgiveness is meaningless and he is simply getting worse. Gorsetail asks what her daughter is talking about, and Whisknose blurts about Crowfeather slicing her ear. At that moment, Gorsetail breaks up with Crowfeather.

Crowfeather suffers the political consequences as well. Harestar says he is too personally motivated and can no longer be deputy. The grey tom can't believe that history is repeating itself. This is the third litter that hates him. He wishes Breezepelt hadn't returned, and perhaps he wouldn't be back at square one.

Crowfeather spends days in his nest in a deep depression. He begins fantasising about his apprentice days, a time when he was still innocent. He wonders what would have happened if Feathertail survived and they settled down. It would have been so much simpler. His grief would have never led him astray and left a trail of estranged kits.

On the fifth night, Featherpelt caught his eyes. She was so much like Feathertail in every way. Her name, her pelt, her personality. She was his former apprentice, too, so the bond was already there. Alright. One more try. If he can find someone else, perhaps it will work out this time.

Crowfeather spent moons obsessively getting closer to Featherpelt. He claimed he was reconnecting with friends since his breakup. Featherpelt somewhat understood and was happy to spend time with her old mentor. Crowfeather bent over backwards for Featherpelt, showering her with compliments and gifts.

Finally, he confessed his love for Featherpelt. The silver she-cat was confused. She admired her mentor, but did she love him? She felt uncomfortable about the age gap. At the same time, he put so much effort into their friendship. She felt guilty if all his efforts were for nothing. She asked Crowfeather to give her time to think about it. Not satisfied, Crowfeather used his influence as the former deputy. He asked a few followers to put "a good word in for him".

These followers pestered Featherpelt, who said she could give him happiness after such a difficult life. She cracked under their harassment and said she would give Crowfeather a chance. The grey tom demanded kits as soon as possible. The silver she-cat reminded him that Whisknose thought she was infertile—or at least, it was too dangerous for her to give birth.

Crowfeather accused Whisknose of lying, as she didn't want her father to move on. Going further, the grey tom pleaded that he "needed her" and "she was his only shot at happiness". Emotionally exhausted from his manipulation, Featherpelt complied.

It didn't end well. Featherpelt died during birth. She had a single kit, a son who looked identical to his father. Whisknose tried to get another queen to adopt the kit, but Crowfeather refused. He declared he would stay in the nursery and take Featherpelt's place. Whisknose was terrified of the look in Crowfeather's eyes, but she couldn't deny a father his child.

That night, Crowfeather sat with his newborn. He bitterly named him Barrenkit. Crowfeather kept jumping from love to hatred for this tiny bundle. This was his son, yet he had taken Featherpelt away from him. It was just another death to add to the pile. Had Starclan cursed him?

Why had his ancestors made Barrenkit look exactly like him? Would the curse be passed onto him? What good was that? What good was any of this? Why was he raising another kitten if he was going to end up ruining their lives? Featherpelt might have fixed Crowfeather, but she was gone now. It was just him and Barrenkit. It was destined to fail.

So, why subject Barrenkit to that? Why subject him to this hopeless world?

Crowfeather snarled. He would not let Barrenkit become like him. He pressed down onto his son's neck.

[bonefall]

Ripplestar’s Rot & The Death of the 5th Oak

[Image ID: Ripplestar from warrior cats sits against a harsh red background. He has a trail of ginger blotches across his face and down his arm. His paw is raised. A moon is behind his claws.]

Rest in peace you ferocious bastard you woulda LOVED Fire Alone

Ripplestar had heterochromia- one eye was a dull black-brown, the other was a bright amber. He was a mostly black tom with a distinctive "stripe" of broken orange ember spots on the colorful side of his body, right across the amber eye. He was thick for a WindClan-descended cat, with a very thick, plush pelt.

When SkyClan was exiled, not everyone agreed with the Leader’s decisions to just let them leave. The Clerics argued and staged a strike, lead by Larkstripe of WindClan. In response, a new law was passed to limit their power... and Ripplekit was taken from his vow-breaking mother, raised as a brother to Gorsekit and Spottedkit.

Birdflight, welcomed by ShadowClan, waited for years for her mate to send envoys to bring her and her kits ‘home.‘ They never came-- So she and her children realized something must be very wrong. If SkyClan hadn’t found a safe place to live elsewhere, then Ripplestar vowed he would make room.

These are the events of Ripplestar’s Rot.

Content Warning: Someone gets squished like a tomato by a falling tree and there is blood, but no gore

Ripplekit

Birdflight’s kits were too young to bring along on Cloudstar’s Journey. Dawnstar graciously extended an offer to take any SkyClan cats that wanted to stay behind. ShadowClan would always welcome helping claws.

ALL of the clerics were united in their fury at SkyClan’s exile. They knew better than anyone else the importance of keeping 1/5th of StarClan in place.

They kept arguing long after SkyClan had left that a mistake was made. It was a fearful time, with the cats of all Clans terrified that what befell SkyClan could happen to them.

The Leaders decided that since StarClan did not cover the moon on that fateful day, they had spoken. This was divisive; Clerics were the widely accepted interpreters of StarClan... but the leaders were correct about the moon.

And no one had a good answer as to what would be done if SkyClan DID return. Their territory was gone.

The argument almost died down... and then the 5th Oak Tree developed a spot of blight.

Larkstripe of WindClan (Larkwing FQ) organized a strike. They told their leaders, “Next time you get sick, we’ll just let you go to StarClan, so YOU can see what they say if you think you’re so smart.“

There was panic. Panic about the blight, panic about the infighting, panic about the human destruction.

Swiftstar, on his last life and dying of treatable disease, tested Larkstripe's resolve. She told him, "If you live, StarClan is telling me I am wrong. If you die, they will decide your fate. Listen or gamble, it is your newest choice, we will see if you made the right decision last time."

When deputy Dalerunner took power, he decided he must crush the strike.

So, the leaders took hard action and accused the clerics of hypocrisy.

Larkstripe had violated the “Cleric’s Vow” and taken a mate, nursing a single kit. In those days, it was a personal vow, taboo but not forbidden by law.

The strike fell apart after Larkstripe was made into an example. Dalestar accused her publicly, saying that StarClan was not speaking to her because of her violation.

The Cleric’s Vow was ratified into the Code, allowing the leaders to better control their medics.

Ripplekit, about 4 moons at the time, was taken from Larkstripe. Birdflight agreed to adopt him. He missed his mother terribly... but bonded with Gorsekit and Spottedkit.

The blight spread.

Ripplemoon

Larkstripe never got to reunite with her kitten... she died shortly before he became a warrior. Some say of a broken heart.

He had his eyes on leadership from a young age. Dawnstar was determined to allow the three kits to grow up to be loyal ShadowClan warriors.

His family used to speak about how Cloudstar would send warriors to fetch them... the fact they never came alarmed them.

His whole warriorship, Ripplemoon watched the blight climb up the fifth oak tree. Talking about it was taboo, even though it was visibly getting worse.

Ripplemoon was an honorable, thoughtful cat. NEVER afraid to defend his reputation, never refusing a challenge. This type of chivalry was important, in those days.

There was only one time he brought up the oak at a gathering. It descended into argument immediately, the clouds rolling over the moon. He thought it was fitting; that what remained of StarClan was a bunch of petty cowards who couldn’t handle reality.

Or a fight.

Being chosen for deputy was a matter of course. Dawnstar wanted a noble deputy to succeed her, someone who wasn’t afraid to stand up for himself... perhaps she regretted putting Larkstripe down so harshly for doing the same thing, so many years ago.

Ripplestar

He wasted NO TIME getting his bones in a row. Dawnstar was barely cold before that first gathering.

”Something has to be done. Five trees, five Clans. You will shuffle to make way, or I will carve it out.“

They Did Not Listen

It was BLOODY. Ripplestar pushed ShadowClan past the Thunderpath, crushing ThunderClan. WindClan took advantage of the fight and tried to push into ShadowClan. ThunderClan clawed for Sunningrocks and put pressure on RiverClan.

There were defectors from those Clans. Everyone had eyes; they could see the tree dying. Not everyone was loyal to the Clan of their birth. The conflict escalated.

...Gorseclaw saw this carnage. He couldn’t handle it anymore. He met the other leaders in secret, and told them about Ripplestar’s last plan... in exchange for safety, in ThunderClan.

Ripplestar never saw this betrayal coming. Gorseclaw was his brother.

The Full Moon Battle

Ripplestar planned for it to be a surprise blitz, for every gathered warrior to make their alliance known, for elders and apprentices to scatter from the battle... but the leaders only brought their most loyal supporters.

Three Clans against One.

Ripplestar attacked Dalestar at the top of the highrock, tumbling and threatening to spill over the side

Gorseclaw grappled with Spottedpelt, and with a fateful strike that would begin a cycle that haunts his bloodline to this very day, he ended her life and watched his golden-furred sibling fade away. 

Just then, lightning crackled out of the sky, striking the 5th Oak at its blighted base. It tumbled forward, and Ripplestar kicked Dalestar off him just in time to realize it was coming right for him.

SQUISH

The oak cracked against the stone where it had killed Ripplestar. One snap at the stump, one snap across the trunk, in a distinct lightning-bolt shape. The same shape that would become Brokenstar’s tail.

Blood dripped down the side of the highrock on both sides, more than there should have been. The moon was red above them.

A horrible curse was laid that night.

The Four Clans would pay for what they’d allowed to happen to SkyClan; and ShadowClan would be rewarded for its harboring of Birdflight by becoming the eye of the storm.

No one else was killed by the falling tree. This was taken as a sign... the four Clans were to remain separate. Three more laws were added to the code, to encourage loyalty and prevent a rebellion like this from ever happening again.

[warrior-cats-rewritten]

Oooooh could you tell us more about Moth/Leaf/Crow in your rewrite

Mothwing/Leafpool/Crowfeather

This trio! The world's most inconvenient polycule!

Leafpool is given the go-ahead by Bramblestar after Crowfeather shows himself at the border. He figures that Leafpool has done so much for the Clans, she deserves this. Crowfeather wants to be a part of Thunderclan, and after losing a large chunk of cats to The Great Battle and The Great Storm... They let him join.

Besides, is Starclan REALLY gonna try to punish Leafpool? The cat who discovered the Moonpool?

Yes, actually. They did. Moon Flight was FURIOUS.

But that's a story for another day.

Mothwing is having a pretty rotten time in Riverclan. She loves fish (and girl can make a MEAN Salmon Bun) and she loves her family, but Riverclan's general lifestyle (and political atmosphere) do not suit her. Where Hawkfrost is focused on staying out of the spotlight and under radars, and Tadpole is actively working to push things in a different direction, Mothwing's philosophy is "if it sucks, HIT DA BRICKZ"

Which she finally does, during TBC. Mistystar doesn't get the satisfaction of exiling her, Mothwing leaves before she can officially say it.

Thunderclan's atmosphere however, is even worse. Crowfeather got himself Dishonor Titled for simply talking about his dead mother to help another cat suffering with grief. Bramblestar having renamed him Lostfeather. A missing feather that doesn't seem to know its place. A drifting feather that will guide youth (his apprentice) astray.

Yeah... No thanks. Leafpool is wonderful, and their adventure together during Squirrelflight's Freedom was downright magical... But that is not worth it. Skyclan is staying neutral and rabbit makes Mothwing feel gross... Shadowclan ain't so bad, right?

Her strong bond with Leafpool stays strong throughout the books, the two openly affectionate with one another. She loves how quietly strong Leafpool is, how selfless she has been, and just how protective Leafpool is of her loved ones.

On Crowfeather's side of things, he leaves Windclan after The Last Hope, as a storm gathers on the horizon, he finally departs from the Clan he didn't want to stay in and joins Thunderclan, becoming Leafpool's mate and doing his best to bond with his children to varying degrees of success.

Lionblaze was a wee bit too busy at first, with Cinderheart going into a false labour making him the world's Most Anxious Man. Doesn't help that Crowf just... Cannot do labor. He is the man who faints moments after telling you to take deep breaths.

Jayfeather was in a depressive spell and didn't want to speak with anyone, especially after the death of Whitewing. He... really beat himself up about it.

Well... At least Hollyleaf made a joke about them being good night hunters thanks to their dark coats.

He is trying his best, and they do come around. He reassures Lionblaze that he'll be a great dad, helps Jay with his depression management and PTSD, and supports all of Hollyleaf's ambitions. (He also makes an effort to be good with Breezey-P.)

He isn't in love with Mothwing, and Mothwing isn't in love with him, they both love Leafpool, and they are good friends. He continuously works hard to be the best mate he can be to Leafpool, with gifts, assistance whenever it can be given, as well as lots of nice massages after a long day of medical work.

Now, on for the third member of our trio:

Leafpool! Now SAVED from a pathetic death and getting to stay alive during the chaotic events of TBC. She is also Dishonor Titled, given the name Mothpuddle. It's a strange name, one that sends a very clear message to her that "Bramblestar" knows something he shouldn't.

More on that later. She and Mothwing were also strongly bonding during The Great Journey, and she debated asking Mothwing to run away with her, only deciding against it because Riverclan didn't have another Medicine Cat, and it wouldn't have been fair to make Moth decides between her beloved career and a life out in the sticks.

She loves Crowfeather for his passion, his wit, and his soft side that emerged while they traveled together through the mountains. She loves Mothwing for her ingenuity, her grace, and her ability to take charge when needs be.

It helps that they love her kids. Mothwing gets along beautifully with The Three, especially Jayfeather.

They finally get together during Dark Times/ASC's ending, when Mothwing leaves Riverclan once and for all to enjoy a peaceful life in Thunderclan. The Clans are about to enter a very tumultuous time, with Skyclan being leaderless, Thunderclan and Windclan's new leaders not having their 9 lives, while Riverclan and Shadowclan's new leaders having been given a dark blessing off of gray wings.

[crowwithinternetaccess]

tell me one of your favorite backstories concerning your ocs

OH HO HO You are gonna regret asking this XD

My favorite OC backstory I've written so far is for Indigowing, my Warrior Cats villain OC! I have a novel about him in the works, a playlist of songs I relate to him (here it is if you're interested: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLqBYNH4StWEIt9EnHCBGamTQ2qoXyEY7c), and a whole bunch of drawings and animations on my yt. I'm kinda obsessed 💀

SO I'll try to explain this as concise as possible, but let's be fr this is abt to be a whole textwall so sorry for that LOL. It started in ThunderClan, where an eight moon old abandoned kit (Indigowing) was found. The ThunderClan leader took pity on him, as it was leaf-fall, and she believed he might not survive leafbare. Indigopaw was made an apprentice and began to train, learning the ways of the warrior code and how to fight and hunt, but surprised ThunderClan with his self-taught fighting techniques. By this time in his life, Indigopaw had already been on his own for so long (he didn't even remember who his parents were; his mother abandoned him as soon as he was weaned) that he could hunt and fight on his own, though ThunderClan saw his ways as backwards and cruel (and tbf he was). After moons of training, however, he was eventually made a warrior despite the fact that most of the clan did not trust him at all and only saw him for his past as a rogue kit. Up to this point, Indigowing stayed optimistic that he could prove himself, win over ThunderClan and MAKE them love him, but this all fell apart when, after a battle with WindClan where ThunderClan's then deputy died, Indigowing's "rival", Volestrike was chosen as the next deputy instead of him. To be fair to Indigowing, I wrote this so that if Indigo had been clanborn, he would have been chosen as deputy, but the entire clan being afraid of him is a pretty good reason not to make him deputy anyways. After this, Indigowing's attitude shifted as he finally realized that he simply would not be able to win over the clan. Their attitude towards him is half prejudice towards rogues and half because of his temper and his disregard for authority and rules. Soon after the naming of the new deputy, an altercation occurred where an argument between Volestrike and Indigowing turned into Indigowing attacking Volestrike, scarring the young deputy both physically and mentally. Indigowing was exiled from ThunderClan, and the furious warrior quickly came up with a plan; he would go to WindClan and lie that ThunderClan kicked him out because they "no longer wanted a rogue in their clan" (and they would believe him because in the story I did set up WC's leader, Nightstar, to like Indigowing, and because ThunderClan and WindClan were warring, so WC didn't like TC at all right then and would believe any slander against their enemy). Indigowing would then play the long game and climb the ranks in WindClan; once he was leader, he would destroy ThunderClan, kill Volestrike (who will be Volestar when they meet in the final battle), and become the most feared and powerful cat in the forest. After moons of working his way up in WindClan, tensions between WC and TC building, ESPECIALLY after TC realized that WC had taken Indigo in, Indigowing (not without a little murdering of some of the cats in his way) became Indigostar. The final confrontation between Indigostar and Volestar is in a massive battle between Thunder and WindClan, in which Indigostar is killed by his old foster mother from ThunderClan, Shadedpool. He is sent to the dark forest after death. Hope I explained that well as it's a kinda convoluted story XD

ANYWAYS that was a lot loll- tysm for asking though, I LOVE rambling about my edgy furry OCs. Indigowing has an art fight page as well: https://artfight.net/character/3938477.indigowing if you wanna see the art I've made of him!

[warriors-reshuffled]

Cloudnose

A skinny grey and white cat with a persistant cold. He wears lavender sprigs at the base of his tail and a healer’s satchel around his torso.

Cloud- grey and white coloration

nose- a cat with a good sense of smell, good judge of character

Son of Lizardstripe. Brother of Deerfoot and Tangleburr. Foster brother of Brokenstar.

During kithood, Cloudkit was constantly falling ill. His immune system was weak and Yellowfang truly didn’t believe he would live long. But he did. And he continued to live all the way up to being named an apprentice alongside his nestmates.

Young Brokenkit wanted nothing more than to be a medic. His parent had other plans. Raggedstar saw Brokenkit as their heir and saw fit to groom him as such. Nothing but a warrior would be tolerated for the young brat.

And as if adding insult, the sickly young Cloudkit would take Broken’s place. At first he was absolutely furious, throwing a tantrum that made even his foster siblings surprised. But it wasn’t enough to change Raggedstar’s mind.

With no way out, newly-named Brokenpaw made Cloudkit promise that he would always stay by his side. That he would always do what’s best for Shadowclan. And Cloudpaw agreed.

His apprenticeship is largely unremarkable. Cloudpaw kept to himself while trying to please Yellowfang. And despite all expectations he did grow to develop a love for medicine. Occasionally he would teach Brokenpaw the basics of herbs, though these opportunities grew fewer and farther between as time passed.

It’s after his mentor is exiled that things get… interesting.

At first Cloudnose is horrified when Brokenstar starts training apprentices early. Too early. Great Starclan, they’re just kits! So he braces himself for the worst…

And it never comes. The mentors are extremely protective of their apprentices, teaching them well. If anything, it just means more hinters and crafters to provide for the clan. More lookouts to keep the camp safe. More cats to make Shadowclan strong.

Perhaps, this truly is a good thing.

Note: up until the Windclan massacre Brokenstar doesn’t use child soldiers. The most they would do is steal rouge kits while their mentors distract the parents.

So Cloudnose goes along with it. After all, the leader’s word is law. And slowly, moon by moon, the clan grows stronger. They expand their territory and extracted fear from cats far and wide. No one could doubt they had reached a bloody Golden Age.

A part of Cloudnose knows this is wrong. But he made a promise to do what’s best for Shadowclan. And now Shadowclan thrives.

And if anyone else needs convincing, well, the word of a head medic carries a lot of weight.

[vyurza]

Exiled Cats: ShadowClan, SkyClan, WindClan

Archeye, Poolcloud, Hollyflower, Crowtail, Nightpelt (exiled by Brokenstar) - Brokenstar exiled the elders from ShadowClan camp for being a burden. All of them except Poolcloud, who died in exile, returned to overthrow Brokenstar's leadership with ThunderClan

Yellowfang (exiled by Brokenstar) - After being accused of murdering Marigoldkit and Mintkit, Brokenstar exiled Yellowfang from ShadowClan

Brokenstar, Blackfoot, Clawface, Tangleburr, Stumpytail, Russetfur, Boulder (exiled by ShadowClan) - ShadowClan had grown tired of Brokenstar's tyranny, and chose to forcibly exile him, along with his followers, from the Clan

Sol (exiled by Blackstar) - After Sol's speeches shook Blackstar's faith in StarClan, he exiled him once his belief was reignited

Violetkit (exiled by Rowanstar) - Due to her friendship with Needlepaw, one of the rebellious apprentices, Rowanstar mistrusted Violetkit. So when Needlepaw wanted to take the kit with her to join The Kin, Rowanstar agreed, exiling her. He allowed Violetkit to rejoin when she asked several moons later

Dovewing (exiled by Self Imposed) - Upon being told she was a codebreaker, Dovewing went into self-imposed exile to atone. Tigerstar and Shadowsight brought her back soon afterwards. However, she decided to continue her atonement after learning that the Bramblestar leading ThunderClan was an imposter, to avoid suspicion

Berryheart, Sparrowtail, Hollowspring (exiled by Tigerstar) - Berryheart suggested voting Tigerstar out of power, but Puddleshine was worried she was misusing the rule. The leader reccomended her faction to leave. Half chose to stay, while the rest became rogues

Quick Water (exiled by Skystar) - Skystar had Quick Water exiled after Shadowstar told him that Quickwater killed both her and her deputy, Sun Shadow

Harveymoon & Macgyver (exiled by Leafstar) - Leafstar exiled Macgyver and Harveymoon for one moon due to being uncommitted to SkyClan. During that time, they had to think of their true loyalties. On their return, they vowed to work harder

Sol (exiled by Leafstar) - Leafstar exiled Sol for kidnapping her kits in a failed scheme to become a warrior. He swore revenge on the whole of Clan culture

Tree (exiled by Self Imposed) - The imposter demanded Tree be exiled to atone for his codebreaking. Although Leafstar refused, Tree reluctantly complied and went into a temporary three day exile

Kitescratch (exiled by Leafstar) - Leafstar exiled Kitescratch after she discovered he took part in an attempt to kill Bramblestar's imposter, who also demanded she exile him. However, Leafstar had him retrieved quickly afterwards, revealing she had not genuinely intended to exile Kitescratch, and only did it to make the fake Bramblestar trust her

Moth Flight (exiled by Self Imposed) - When Moth Flight accidentally endangered herself and Gorse Fur, Wind Runner declares her daughter too troublesome for WindClan. Thinking she's right, Moth Flight temporarily leaves until the desire to help her Clan makes her return

Crowfeather (exiled by Onestar) - Onestar exiles him for a quarter moon due to disobeying orders and disrespect. He was allowed to return early for finding a missing Nightcloud

Crowfeather (exiled by Harestar) - As a listed codebreaker, Harestar exiled Crowfeather from WindClan. However, Crowfeather later returned to WindClan and his deputy position after the imposter was disposed of

[lucy-the-demon]

Warrior cats, a starless clan, book 5, wind review.

As always , spoilers for the series and for this book

Review down below

So I had to read it twice because the first time I read it I was in a bad mood and I was stressed out over things at the time so it kinda went blank one, through one ear (or eye because i don't use audiobooks) and out the other

So I re read it and looked at other reviews to fully grasp what was happened

I mean your gonna have to read this book to know that's going on in the 6th book but it's a lot of Filler so I'll give you the rundown of what happens first before stating my personal opinions on the book itself

Alrighty let's get this overwith..

* cracks open a pepsi*

So the book starts with Frostpaw going to the gathering to announce splashtail is a murderer and he shouldn't be riverclans leader and starclan told her it wasn't gonna end well

In previous books her visions weren't true until she actually started getting real vision from starclan And she had admitted her visions at first weren't true before she got real visions so the other four clans don't believe her when she mentions starclan speaking to her

Which is frustrating for the reader knowing Frostpaw is telling the truth.

So they call her a liar and splashtail exiles her from Riverclan for speaking against him, so tigerstar the 2nd let's her stay in his clan and the park cats that Frostpaw brought with her stay in thunderclan

Tigerstar the next day starts a clan meeting where he wants the cats to tell him their grievances, frostpaw speaks up at the meeting telling him that her clan suffered the most from him showing up and taking control, which makes the other cats speak up, afterwards he tells her that he was nice enough to let her stay but she tells him it was her clan who suffered and not his where he respects her for being strong and speaking her mind and afterwards she asks if she can sneak off to Riverclan tigerstar 2 tells her she can but she can't bring his warriors with her.

She accepts this than spies on the Riverclan camp where splashtail is doing battle training and finds out he hasn't gotten his nine lives yet, Mothwing catches her but doesn't say anything and goes to a spot away from the clan where they talk about how splashtail is running the clan. Mothwing admitting she doesn't like how his rule is going and when they talk about him getting his 9 lives Frostpaw gives the idea that hes gonna push it off until the other cats just accept it. Which scares Mothwing about starclan abandoning Riverclan making them 'a starless clan' as the title implies

So in sunbeams pov a few chapters later sunbeam and nightheart see a windclan patrol and breezepelt tells her that he saw berryheart and the other two near the windclan border and that berryheart looked bad which worries sunbeam. So she asks her leader, squirrelstar, if she can see if her family is okay, squirrelstar allows her but don't get caught.

Meanwhile on the half moon medicine cat meeting, frostpaw goes with shadowsight and puddleshine to the moonpool where the other cats question if she should stay but overall lets her stay podlight and mothwing show up and theirs a short argument between Frostpaw and podlight over whos the true medicine cat and podlight admits that splashtail hasn't been taken to the moonpool to revive his lives, to the dismay of the others But it ends shortly so they can visit starclan at the moonpool.

Frostpaw sees a vision of a shadow looming over the lake and the water draining which implies that splashtail is going to destroy Riverclan to the reader, but in-universe skyclan and Riverclan and windclan med cats dismiss this vision as Frostpaw is the reason for the destruction, where the other medicine cats take it seriously and say " if it was fake why would she make herself the shadow in Riverclan" (not the graphic novel)

Sunbeam visits her mom and sees she got a nasty cut on some glass and it's getting infected and later when she gets back nightheart is keeping watch for the medicine cats while sunbeam is getting herbs to help her mom. When alderheart and Jayfeather come back sunbeam tells him to stall them, where nightheart asks them about Frostpaw, which makes the med cats and him talk about the vision she got with squirrelstar, so squirrelstar and nightheart go to shadowclan

They talk about the vision and what Frostpaw saw while spying on Riverclan which makes them worried about where this was going

The next few chapters Frostpaw and puddleshine hide in a bush at the moonpool to see if splashtail went to the nine lives ceremony, he comes with podlight and they mock the ceremony unknowingly in front of the two med cats. Splashtail saying " if we see reedwhisker again I could kill him a second time" while the two mock the ceramony with no intention of actually doing it riverstar jumps out of the moonpool over the two toms and looks at frostpaw and puddleshine

The two toms joking about the ceremony don't notice him at all even as he jumped over their heads, while Frostpaw and puddleshine see him clearly and know that podlight is a fake medicine cat.

The next chapter ( I think) sunbeam gives the herbs to her mom and berryheart refuses, so sunbeams dad and brother say they'll put it in her prey to make her eat it. Sunbeams brother telling her she will need a medicine cat soon to prevent her from dying as her wound has gotten worse. Sunbeam makes a plan to get her mom to Jayfeather and alderheart in 3 days

But she gets caught by a windclan patrol as she goes home and has to stay in their camp for the night and so the next day squirrelstar is about to punish her before tigerstar 2 shows up and tells them about what frostpaw and puddleshine saw and squirrelstar wants to wait until they have windclans side because leafstar refused to hear tigerstar 2 and the med cats out

After tigerstar 2 and the shadowclan patrol leaves squirrelstar punishes sunbeam by not allowing her out of camp and to do apprentice duties. Which Sunbeam is upset knowing she can't help her mom get to a med cat in 3 days like she promised her brother she would

So 3 days later she asks nightheart if he could help them and he does but they didn't show up, nightheart says something like" it's probably because it's me" because y'know berryheart is a Karen who hates the fact her daughter loves nightheart a thunderclan cat while her daughter was shadowclan and shes bitter because she's a Karen

So anyways harestar( windclan ) says they'll think on their decision and when the gathering comes Frostpaw calls out how he mocked starclan at the 9 lives ceramony and splashtail ignored her and calls her a liar, where tigerstar 2 calls it out as well and they ask what harestars decision is and he's on splashtails side which crushes Frostpaw, and after the gathering two riverclan cats on Frostpaws side tell her they plan on turning more cats against splashtail which gives her hope.

And waffle becomes a thunderclan apprentice and becomes wafflepaw along with bristlekit, greykit and stem kit getting their apprentice names.

That night Frostpaw has a vision that a tree is going to crush the windclan nursery so she starts to go to windclan

Sunbeam is finally able to leave the camp again and is hunting with her patrol when a storm starts to come, they go into a bush and see frostpaw going through the territory she tells them she has to go to windclan and leaves to go to the border soon after going into the bush for shelter.

The patrol come back to the camp and Sunbeam and nightheart are working on securing the elders den putting branches up to help the elders from being cold.

Meanwhile Frostpaw sees a windclan patrol and tells them she needs to see kestrelflight the cats constantly shrug her off rudely until she tells them her vision of the windclan nursery getting crushed from a tree, since they don't have trees nearby they basically call her stupid but bring the med cat so she'll leave. Kestrelflight shrugs her vision off too, and Frostpaw instead of going back to shadowclan runs to thunderclan where she tells squirrelstar about her vision and gets help from nightheart and sunbeam

As they run to windclan lightning strikes a tree and a large chunk it it starts flying towards windclan and then crushes the nursery, whistlepaw trying to get in to save her sister leafkit with some work Frostpaw gets whistlepaw to get out and she does and has wounds.

They move enough branches for Sunbeam to get in and she rescues leafkit and gets her back to her mom unscathed

After a while of helping in the medicine den, kestrelflight apologies for how she acted to Frostpaw and forgives whistlepaw for lying to the clan that Frostpaw died seeing now why she did it And harestar finally believes Frostpaw has real visions and is the true medicine cat for Riverclan.

The day after they get back to their clans tigerstar talks to squirrelstar about the recent news with windclan and how they can't fight unless Riverclan takes action and Frostpaw plans to spy on them so nightheart and sunbeam offer to join her which she accepts

And wafflepaw tells nightheart how he let wasp go to Riverclan and the cats are freaking out, until Riverclan rudely gives back wasp and threatens them with violence if they catch another cat spying and wasp decides to go back to the park

So Frostpaw, Sunbeam and nightheart have to be careful to not get caught so they go the path through windclan and spy on Riverclan

Splashtail having cats use their claws on each other and it turns out mothwing, icewing and duskfur left Riverclan after they stood up against him and splashtail wants to kill them. Harelight asks him if he's being too harsh and splashtail kills him in front of their clanmates. Turns out berryheart joined Riverclan and splashtail makes her their deputy To the spying cats horror.

So now Frostpaw has to find the 3 missing cats before splashtail kills them too

And that's how the book ends

Actual review

So I kinda find it funny how berryheart is becoming the very thing she swore to destroy. And her being so hateful to other clans caused her to also want to be hateful to shadowclan. She's literally " you either die a hero, or live long enough to become the villain"

I forgot to mention but in the prologue splashtail says in his inner dialogue that he won't get his 9 lives because he thinks he shouldn't have starclans blessing, I think that will make him easier to get rid of than he thinks

And I doubt berryheart is going to become leader next book I think she's gonna die before she even thinks about it

So you know how curlfeather died to save frostpaw

Well I think berryheart gonna die saving Sunbeam

Remember how In the broken code bristlefrost saved rootspring from drowning and how at the end she died saving shadowsight?

And about who's gonna be riverclans leader, either mothwing, Frostpaw or bee.

Mothwing is My least favorite choice because she's cannonically an atheist and how she feels happy to be a medicine cat I feel like it would ruin her character

In thunder bee had visions about being near a bunch of cats they didn't recognize and perhaps that means he will be leader to Riverclan

And Frostpaw becoming leader sounds like a stretch but perhaps bee comes to Riverclan after berryheart and splashtail are dead and makes Frostpaw the leader without her needing a warrior name Because riverstar seems to have been giving her lessons on being a leader, and she seems much more like a leader as the books have gone on. The only issue is if she is going to become leader, who will she meet at the 9 lives ceramony? Not a lot of people in her life has died for it to make up 9 cats.

I guess we'll just have to wait till November when the book comes out

The only issue here is that the book feels frustrating knowing that Frostpaw is right and that the cats who are on splashtails side are wrong. It's a little frustrating to read and it makes you feel like these cats are stupid despite the fact it makes sense considering she acknowledged she used to have fake visions.

Of course they wouldn't believe her but it's still frustrating

And leafstar uncharacteristically is on splashtails side, despite often being on the side of the good Guys, I get it they needed conflict but idk.. I hope next book she realizes splashtail is the bad guy because jeez this isn't in character leafstar..

That's it bye..

[brightblueflare]

BLAZING SKY AU: Forest Four Culture

One of the (many) things that bother me about canon is how, in spite of the characters rejecting TigerClan in the basis of "there have always been four Clans in the forest (*sad SkyClan noises intensify*)", there's no real reason for the Clans to stay separate.

It's always "we live in X, we hunt X and we are X", nothing about the ways the Clans are different except for stereotypes played straight. WindClan used to have tunnels and loners visiting them every once in a while, but don't worry! It's all forgotten now!

(*muffled screaming of the naive reader that thought something could be interesting about this series*)

Don't get me started on SkyClan, I don't want to get angry.

So, for my Blazing Sky AU, in spite of the fact that the Forest Four don't show up until like, second book, and that's only WindClan (+Sandstorm and Dustpelt/Graystripe, still thinking about it), I'm gonna grab them and put everything that occurs to me about them.

*pats Clans on the head* These blorbos can fit so much culture in them.

Canon? What's that? Food? Nope, never heard of it. Original books? What are you talking about?

(More under the cut!)

ThunderClan

BSk's cats, like real life cats, are primarily crepuscular. However, ThunderClanners lean more towards diurnal. In no small part, this is to avoid owls, since those are the major birds of prey they can find in their territory. However, most of the animals they hunt sleep during the night, and are only active during the day; that definitely plays a factor in their sleep schedule.

They are very... heteronormative might not be the word, since they do not care if cats are in same-sex relationships, or if they're trans; but they believe all cats that can have them should have at least one litter, and can be very pushy about it. Also, they're expected to find mates, regardless of gender (amatonormativity). Cats like Mousefur and Ivypool Wouldn't Have A Good Time.

Aside from RiverClan, ThunderClan is the most strict with and protective of Queen's Rights, in spite of their original opposition of them during Oakstar's Reign. This has a cultural reason: while sires don't have to be revealed, if they are known, they are expected to raise those kittens, which can be uncomfortable if there's been a major break-up or if you only helped your friend have kittens. Cats like Spiderleg are heavily looked down upon.

After SkyClan's exile, they are the most xenophobic Clan. Cats like Thistleclaw and Tigerstar usually come from ThunderClan for a reason. However, half-Clan kittens are much more tolerated after what happened to Mapleshade. If Graystripe were to be revealed as the sire of Featherkit and Stormkit, he would be shunned, but his kittens would be accepted and taught to be loyal ThunderClan warriors... maybe a little too enthusiastically.

Very ableist. Just like in the canon books, disabled cats are pushed into the seer's den (Cinderpelt with her twisted leg, Jayfeather being blind, Briarlight with her paralyzed back legs and Alderheart with severe anxiety) or expected to retire (Longtail after being blinded, and the fear that Brightheart wouldn't become a warrior). At any rate, this ableism explains why other Clans have disabled cats as deputies (Deadfoot) and leaders (Crookedstar and Brokenstar), while ThunderClan doesn't even let them become warriors.

In spite of their name, ThunderClan values silence. They live in a forest where everything makes noise, so being quiet is a sign of a good stalker and hunter.

Just like other Clancats (except those from SkyClan), ThunderClanners worship StarClan. However, other thing they believe in is that the deceased have to be buried, preferably next to a tree. This comes from the belief that the forest gives its cats life, and that it must be returned. This is exclusive for them.

The most exigent with work and providing for the Clan. That's not to say they don't value free time, but they believe you must have done something before that.

Parents (mothers in particular) do the majority of the kitten-raising, and tend to be overlooked for positions of power, like Bluestar with her kittens, and having to give them up in order to become deputy. They are patriarchal, which is rare for cat societies.

They usually name kittens after plants (Ex. Fern, Leaf, Bracken, Holly...), animals found in their territory (Squirrel, Mouse...) and the Great Clans (Lion and Tiger in particular, Leopard- is more of a RiverClan thing, but there are cases in ThunderClan such as Leopardfoot).

Celebrations are rare. This is part of them not wanting to be "lazy". But they have one, roughly during the spring equinox, celebrating the "rebirth" of the forest, and one around the beginning of the winter, where they thank the forest for all it has provided.

They value battle, even above the other Clans, and believe every cat has to fight. Therefore, seers aren't as respected as other Clans believe they should be.

They're the Clan where the "take care of the elders as thanks for all they did for the Clan" tradition started. They take pride in this, and take the Prey's Privilege law very seriously.

Scars are considered a sign of survival and strength, and that's desirable for their battle-obsessed culture. They also like colorful pelts, particularly in odd patterns, short fur that can't hide scars, and big cats. Brightheart would be very close to their ideal of beauty.

I tried to make ThunderClan resemble the canon Clans and accidentally made it suck a lot, oops. I'm keeping it though, I like it when societies suck on purpose.

ShadowClan

Just like ThunderClan is diurnal, they are nocturnal. The most awake and active Clan during Gatherings. It unnerves the other Clans a lot (they find it funny).

They're the Clan that respects Queen's Rights the least. If the sire isn't named, they consider it free to speculate. However, they're more lax about half-Clan relationships and kittens. Long as you hunt and fight for your Clan, who cares if you visit your otherClan "friend" every once in a while, or if you're a little bit too affectionate towards a rival warrior during Gatherings; friendliness and peace is all the Gathering's about.

Expect them to name half-Clan kittens in a very otherClan way. Ex. A half-ThunderClan kitten being named "Fern" or "(red)Squirrel". This can be meant as a taunt. "Yes, this cat is half-Clan, yes they're the kitten of your Clanmate. See how they fight for us".

The least xenophobic Clan aside from SkyClan. They usually have the sentiment that "if you made half-Clan cats, former rogues and kittypets disappear, there'd be no one left in ShadowClan". Even cats like Brokenstar don't give two rat-tails about your ancestry, just what you can provide for ShadowClan.

Very much not ableist, specially towards blind cats. They live in a territory where not even sighted warriors can see very much, and the more developed senses of scent and hearing blind cats usually have is very beneficial.

Very pious, worship StarClan and often invoke their ancestors for blessings. They boast about it. They have similar beliefs about the forest to ThunderClan. But for them it's much more tradition than actual, religious belief.

Kittens are raised communally by the queens, and sires aren't expected to be involved with raising the kittens, however it's considered highly beneficial. ShadowClan considers the ability to raise kittens a sign of guiding capabilities. Those who have raised litters into adulthood have more chances of being chosen as deputies, both toms and mollies, but lean more towards picking mollies.

They usually name kittens after what they can find on their territory (Marsh, Smoke, Bog...) other predators (Fox, Badger, Hawk, Eagle, Talon...) and trees, particularly rowans, because they're the only Clan that can use their berries.

Celebrations aren't typical, but not as rare as in ThunderClan. They, for example, celebrate the new moon, as a time for healing and rebirth, alongside the start-of-winter ceremony to thank the forest for what it has provided, and the spring equinox for the growth of the forest and the return of prey.

Dark humor? You bet. Harsh, usually considered insensitive and even sadistic by the other Clans. Their favorite joke is to state something dark, maybe even cruel, matter of factly, and have others give more and more absurd responses; the first to laugh loses.

Beauty standards? What's that?- ShadowClanners don't give a crap about how you look. Size? Don't care. Pelt colors? Preferably dark, but anyways not a big deal. Scars? Look cool, what else do you want me to say? Eyes? You can see, right? Good for you; wait, you can't see? No biggie, neither can we in this place.

ShadowClan isn't exigent about mates, you can have kittens and then move on with your lives, stay together and share a nest but have no kittens, have multiple mates or simply Have Friends. They Don't Care, it doesn't matter to them.

Am I projecting on random ShadowClan cats? Yes, probably. No, I regret nothing.

WindClan

Respect Queen's Rights, but are very strict about half-Clan relationships and kittens. They are seen as traitors and "mistakes", and many times they are openly scorned. However, they do welcome cats who want to join WindClan to be with their mate.

Quite xenophobic, but surprisingly accepting of outsiders that want to join the Clan. A remnant of the times when they welcomed travelers temporarily. However, they're very scornful of deserters and cats in half-Clan relationships that don't offer their mate to join WindClan.

A bit ableist, but nothing in comparison to ThunderClan and RiverClan. Still, blind and deaf cats do not have a fun time in this Clan. Cats with limps, or with broken feet like Deadfoot or Cinderpelt are... pitied, for a lack of better word.

Very pious, because of their closeness to the Mothermouth, and proud of it too. Their beliefs aside from SkyClan center around the wind and the earth. It was believed tunnelers should be buried, and that moor runners were better left in the open to feed the earth in their deaths as it fed them during life. This ended with the death of tunneling (thanks Heatherstar).

Kittens are raised communally, everyone collaborates, regardless of gender. Everyone is expected to lend a paw in guiding the little ones on the path to adulthood.

Usually, they name kittens after what they can find on their moor (Hill, Cloud, Tor, Mud, Fly, Stone, Thrush, Heather, Breeze, Hare, Rabbit...). Unlike other Clans, they don't tend to use the Great Cats for names.

Many, simple celebrations. The coming of spring, the summer solstice to pray for the stars to rise again, the fall equinox to celebrate the return of the stars, the winter solstice to thank the earth for all it has provided, the middle of fall where there's a feast (to gain weight before the hardest season)... And many superstitious beliefs, like how kittens born under the full moon are fortunate.

They have a lot of songs, mostly related to their myths and folklore. They are very musical.

They like brown and orange pelts, since they are easy to camouflage. They also love scars.

RiverClan

The Queen's Rights Clan. The law originated here, and its cats take it very seriously. Most of them are, too, very lax about known half-Clan cats. Blood purity that ThunderClan is obsessed with means nothing to RiverClan, it's just alien to them.

Very accepting of Clancats changing allegiance and joining their Clan, but very hostile towards outsiders. Graystripe and Silverstream's kittens would have better luck in RiverClan than, say, Hawkfrost and Mothwing.

Ableist. Very. However, they're also the Clan with more disabled cats, deaf and hard of hearing cats in particular. Life isn't fun for them.

They're much more chill about religion than the other Clans. Aside from the obligatory prayers and celebrations, there isn't much they do in tribute to StarClan. However, they do thank the river for what it has provided.

Kitten raising is communal. Much more than in other Clans. It doesn't matter if you're their parent, their sire/dam, their kin or just a random Clanmate. You. Raise. The Kittens.

Usually, they name their kittens after the river or other bodies of water (Stream, Moss, Lake, Misty, Stone, Reed, Rain, Drizzle, Storm...), fish (Carp, Trout, Minnow...), insects (Dragon{fly}, Moth...), birds (Swan, Duck...) and leopards.

They only have one major celebration, led by the seer, where they give thanks to the river for feeding them during the year, and promise to only hunt on land while it recovers during the winter, while its surface is frozen.

RiverClanners love decoration. If something's necessary, might as well be pretty. They collect shells, feathers, flowers and pretty rocks to decorate their dens' walls or to put on their nests. Giving someone a flower is a sign of trust and appreciation.

They love slick pelts, odd and multicolored patterns and eye colors like green or blue, since amber and yellow are considered common and boring. Like all the other Clans, they like scars, particularly those in the face, the neck or the stomach.

[brxnzedragxn]

i have slept on it now to elaborate on warriors au bc i might as well

bronzemask was a windclan tunneler until his former mentor foxstep [eddie] attacked him underground bc he was jealous of bronzemask stealing his older brother, the newly named chavostar/flight's [sr] attention. he was saved by hoodedjay [rey], who heard the scuffle from the nearest entrance and despite never having been in the tunnels ran in to help him. things were a little tense around windclan after that and it only got worse when after a battle against thunderclan bronzemask nearly killed hoodedjay's friend, edgelight.

so he got the boot from chavostar and went over to riverclan, who was having what one might consider absolutely insane politics between the retired ex leader and his daughter, the current leader, aspentooth/star [stephanie], who shortly after allowing bronzemask into the clan was replaced by her deputy, cypressear/star [paul]

meanwhile in shadowclan cedarpool is dealing with his leader oilstar [bischoff] refusing to respect that he was the stand in deputy before the previous leader decided on oil instead bc "oilstep is craftier," which is about the most insulting thing cedarpool has ever heard in his fucking life but ok. he's the mentor of oilstars least favorite nephew, briarpaw, who should have been made a warrior no less than six times over but oilstar just will not do it. the deputy, lionfang [hunter] and his friends viperstrike [randy] and breezejaw [batista] [former rogue] are also antagonizing him and briar. he fights back, but gets his shit kicked in and is left to die by the riverclan border, with the intent being oilstar can use it as ammo to start a war with riverclan and also blame briarpaw for letting it happen and exile him. dubs all around!

except shadowclan is hesitant to start a war when there's no body. why is there no body. lionfang where the fuck is the body.

with bronzemask, who found him and stashed him out of the way to nurse him back to health without telling cypressstar anything about it bc he's too new to the clan to really want to rock that boat. cedarpool has him go and collect briarpaw from behind enemy lines for briars safety, before oilstar decides to just have him killed and deal with the familial consequences.

and so they plot to kill everyone in power in shadowclan, under the guise of a series of tragic accidents orchestrated by starclan themselves, so that cedarpool can return in their time of need as the most qualified to be leader, with bronzemask as his deputy [and definitely not the easily manipulated briarpaw who would do everything he says and never think about killing him for power]

bronzemask is completely on board and has no idea cedarpool would ever pull the rug out from under him and have him killed to hide what really happened. except, as time wears on, cedarpool starts to realize that he really does want bronzemask with him when he returns home, and briarpaw really likes him, and now he's torn between his ambitions and his feelings.

also breezejaw and bronzemask have history from when breezejaw was a rogue, and neither have seen each other since bronzemask left windclan [breezejaw has no idea bronzemask is still in the clans; bronzemask has no idea breezejaw became a warrior]. the first time they realize that their respective people have been talking about them, they freeze and puff up huge and just stay like that for quite some time.

[thistledown-au-warriors]

fire and ice - chapter 11

< Chapter 10 || Index || Chapter 12 >

The ground under his paws felt like stone as he trotted away from camp. His breath swirled from his muzzle like smoke. He shivered, ruffling out his fur, and stretched one leg at a time.

It had been about a quarter moon since he was made a warrior, and the days had been busy. Between his new duties and retelling the story of bringing back WindClan to all who asked, it felt like he barely got to catch a breath since his return. He was used to spending his time mostly with Misty Step and Gray Stripe, but now every meal had his new denmates asking him a question or another about the mission. Gray Stripe was already looking quite weary from hearing the same tale so many times.

It was somewhat overwhelming to see their curiosity, their enthusiasm, their pride. Even Sand Storm had been something akin to nice to him - although mostly by politely avoiding him. It was a rather welcome change from her former hostility, but still made things awkward when they were placed in apprentice duties together. 

Thanks to Swift Bird being the only apprentice, the four youngest warriors were tasked - begrudgingly - with helping with hunting for the elders or bedding duty, so the young cat wouldn't be too overworked to train properly. It wasn't like they had to do tick duty, and any elder or queen was more agreeable than Violet Fang had been when she was a prisoner, so he didn't mind too much. In a way there was some peace to be found in the responsibilities he was used to, with how turbulent his mind had been.

Fire Heart sat by a patch of cold sunlight, and closed his eyes. He'd aided many cats in need in the past couple moons. He fed Violet Fang before he even knew who she was, and later took care of her and learned to trust her. He and Gray Stripe helped Raven Shadow, ShadowClan, and saved Sand Storm together. He rescued WindClan from exile with Misty Step and Stone Pelt. He watched over Morning Bloom and her kit, helped Bark Face with herbs, and then helped Leopard Fur save Snow Paws. It had felt right, to do all those things, but it seemed like there had always been some level of putting his paws in the wrong place and being called a kittypet for caring, or just straight up punished for whenever helping a cat was against the Code. According to the WindClan tales, all Clans had to stand tall together so they could thrive, so was it truly so wrong to think they could be allies without causing a war? 

A meow of greeting awoke him from his thoughts. "Hello, Fire Heart."

Fire Heart recognized the voice, and it didn't surprise him at all that he hadn't noticed her coming. He opened his eyes to see Misty Step, a ray of sunlight making her blue-gray pelt shine like a silver flame. 

"Good morning, Misty Step." he replied, dipping his head respectfully.

She gazed at him for a moment, before sitting down on the  cold leaf-covered floor. "You don't need to be formal. We're both equals in the Clan, now." she meowed.

Fire Heart blinked. He guessed that was true. She had been a warrior for a long time before he came to ThunderClan, and she had been his mentor for a long time, but now both of them had about the same standing in the Clan. It was a weird feeling.

Misty Step stayed silent for a moment, seeming to study Fire Heart. Then she looked away. "I know that you're your own cat now, Fire Heart." she began. "But… whenever I'm struggling, I know that Stone Pelt and Mossy Patch will be there. They're my family, and my friends." her blue eyes met Fire Heart's once more. "I want you to know that I can still be here for you, even now that you're a warrior. You may have Gray Stripe, but you don't have any kin in the Clan. If you ever need to, and are comfortable with it, you can talk to me."

The ginger tom blinked again. Misty Step was a very guarded warrior, and while he always knew she cared to an extent, he'd never heard her say anything like this. Was it because of the confrontation with Blue Fur that day?

Warmed by her concern, he dipped his head to his old mentor once more. "Thank you. I appreciate it."

Some level of amusement entered her expression at his repeated show of respect. Fire Heart mused at her words. He realized that Blue Fur's kits were indeed incredibly close. Were all Clanborn littermates that way? Raven Shadow and Dusty Earth sure weren't, and he didn't know if Frost Shine's kits weren't together all the time just because they were the only kits their age.

Misty Step got to her paws. "Well. I'm going hunting. Would you like to come with me?" she asked.

Fire Heart almost accepted immediately, then stopped to think. He was used to her just telling him that they'd go hunting, rather than asking him. He'd been enjoying being away from other cats for a few moments. But then he became aware of how cold he was. He'd been idle for too long. It was time to do something.

Fire Heart got up and nodded at her in agreement.

  The two warriors hunted in peaceful silence through the morning, splitting up to follow scent trails, then meeting back up to bury their prey.

As they padded beneath the thin pine trees of Tallpines, the scents of Twolegplace made Fire Heart uneasy, even though he’d lived in a place not far from there as a kit.

"You really are a forest cat, aren't you." Misty Step commented, looking amused.

"What do you mean?" Fire Heart asked, barely taking his eyes off the shapes of the distant Twoleg nests that showed among the branches.

"You're always uneasy near the Twolegplace. One would never guess you weren't Clanborn."

They already have , he replied mentally. Violet Fang and Tall Tail had both known right away, it seemed. 

She seemed like she was about to say more, but suddenly paused. She signaled for Fire Heart to get low, and stalked quietly towards the fences that bordered the Twoleg territory. From the way her neck fur bristled, Fire Heart knew it was not prey. Following the molly, he opened his jaws to taste the crisp air, tensely expecting to scent some intruder. Instead, the scent that hit his nostrils stirred an odd feeling of warmth inside him, puzzling him.

Misty Step halted into a crouch, and pointed with her nose at a cat padding across the forest floor. It was a reddish light-brown tabby molly with distinctive white muzzle, chest and front paws - one of her paws having more white fur than the other. Her belly was swollen, heavy with unborn kits. Around her neck, a kittypet collar.

Fire Heart had already managed to tame his instinct to pouce on intruders right away, but his hackles stayed flat with no effort. He knew that kittypets were no threat, and that he shouldn't harm queens regardless of where they came from, but something else about her made Fire Heart feel no sort of hostility.

Before Misty Step could do anything, Fire Heart deliberately brushed against a stalk of crunchy bracken.

The molly looked up, disturbed by the crackling noise. Her eyes widened with alarm as she saw the two cats. Then she whipped around and set off at a lumbering pace, out of the trees. Within moments she was heaving herself over one of the Twoleg fences.

Misty Step got to her paws, tail tip twitching, watching the kittypet molly escape. "A kittypet queen shouldn't be sniffing around in the woods, but she was quite young…" she commented. Turning to Fire Heart, she tipped her head slightly to the side as she noticed the look on his eyes. "Did you know that kittypet?" she asked.

Fire Heart hesitated. "I… don't think so…" he muttered.

The blue-gray warrior gave him a long look, then turned around.

"I hope she doesn't come here again. ThunderClan territory - in the cold seasons no less - is no place for a kittypet queen. Especially one who's hardly old enough." She meowed, padding away from the Twolegplace. Fire Heart distractedly meowed in agreement. 

Something pricked at the back of his mind, like a stray thorn in his bedding. He frowned thoughtfully as they went back through the way they came.

  ***

  It was past sunhigh when they returned. They didn't catch an impressive amount of prey, but it was good enough for a casual hunting trip. Fire Heart placed his fresh-kill on the pile, and then spotted Gray Stripe beckoning to him from beside the nettle clump.

“I’d gotten you some fresh-kill, though it seems like you have been catching plenty.” Gray Stripe meowed. He hooked a dead mouse with his claw and flung it toward Fire Heart.

Fire Heart caught it in his teeth and lay down next to Gray Stripe. His friend looked at him out the corner of his eyes. "Missed Misty Step already?" He meowed.

Fire Heart scoffed. "I wasn't planning on going out with her, but we met when I went on a walk. It was nice, though." 

"I see." His friend chuckled, but Fire Heart didn't miss the strange expression that had tainted his features. Gray Stripe hadn't shown any more resentment towards Fire Heart since their vigil, but he couldn't shake off the fact his friend still seemed upset sometimes. 

The gray tom paused to yawn. "I guess we can go hunting together another time, then. Anyway, maybe I'll also do something with Rose Fall, while there's time."

Fire Heart swallowed his mouthful of prey quickly, wincing when it got briefly stuck in his throat. "What do you mean?"

"She's joining the elder's den soon." Gray Stripe explained. His eyes saddened for a moment, as if he'd remembered his first mentor - Lion's Heart, who didn't get the chance to retire himself - but he soon gave himself a shake.

Fire Heart paused, looking up at Gray Stripe. "Really? I thought she was younger than Blue Fur."

His friend was licking his own paw, then ran it over his face to wash his whiskers before replying. "Rose Fall had just wanted to make sure to finish my training first before retiring. Apparently her joints aren't handling the cold as well as they used to." he paused. "You know, it kind of makes me feel old, seeing my mentor join the elders' den. I think I might be starting to go gray around the muzzle."

Fire Heart shoved the gray tom's shoulder and let out a well-humored growl. Gray Stripe purred loudly at his own joke. Fire Heart smiled. His friend preferred to stay in high spirits, it would be best to not push whatever was bothering him now.

They shared tongues once he was done with his mouse. The sunshine had warmed the camp somewhat during sunhigh that day, making them drowsy. They curled together for a short nap. Gray Stripe was snoring within moments, but Fire Heart felt strangely awake. The image of the pregnant molly kept returning to his mind, and even though he was surrounded by the familiar smells of ThunderClan, her soft kittypet scent lingered in his nostrils.

He fell asleep at last, but his dreams all carried the same scent amidst the mist of darkness and blurry images. Eventually, the mist cleared, and he found himself inside a long-forgotten memory of his kithood. He remembered lying beside his mother’s belly, curled in a bed softer than any forest moss, his littermates squirming around him. The scent of the pregnant molly still lingered, strong and familiar among his kin.

Fire Heart opened his eyes, suddenly jolted out of his drowsiness. 

Of course! The molly he had seen in the woods… was his sister!

[bonefall]

I've gotta know, where does Heathertail fall into the rewrite? She's one of my favorite side characters, I find it so funny she was friends with Lionblaze and then went to date his messed up half brother. She feels like an 'I can fix him' kind of girl and I love that for her. Also, obviously, the drama she could have had about Darktail and Onestar, which could have been very interesting family drama. And, speaking of that, Whitetail isn't Onestat's apprentice anymore, right? If she's even still Heathertail's mother.

[ID: Halfbody sketch of Heathertail from Warrior Cats. She has a long face, purple eyes, and one long whisker. She's a pale ginger with sandy ears, muzzle, and legs with brown stripes. She's glaring at something off-screen.]

Heather has a VERY expanded role in this rewrite. I'm VERY normal about kids with complicated relationships to their dads.

FIRST THINGS FIRST;

She's a bit of a rebel, but not completely disloyal either. She marches to the beat of her own drum, but stays in-tune with the band, y'know?

If she feels like she's got a good reason for doing something you can't stop her.

Heathertail's Clanmew name is Wishswash-- "Bell Heather Tail".

Contrast to Heatherstar's Clanmew name, Ssinbshai-- "Common Heather Tail"

Onestar's new reduxed parentage is Cloudrunner x Larksplash.

He was named Onekit because he is the only survivor of his birth. His siblings were stillborn and his mother died in the process. It's a hard word to translate; "Ul-arra" means One, but also a whole fraction, and loneliness.

I like the idea that Heathertail looks ginger in some lights, especially as she grows older and her pelt brightens. Like Firestar, or Brushblaze is flashing through her, somehow. A haunting for Onestar.

Onestar's apprentice was Runningbrook, who traumatically dies young in TNP.

Whitetail was not Onestar's apprentice nor was she even his mate; Heathertail was the result of an Honor Siring.

Whitetail wanted kittens and decided to ask the leader of the Clan. Onestar requested co-parenting.

There was no Galekit, Heathertail was from a single-kit litter.

(because im saving galekit for someone else's litter)

Heatherpaw in Po3

Since Bonefall Po3 is episodic and worldbuilding-focused, Heatherpaw is able to feature in a bunch of individual conflicts

She is meeting HOLLY in the tunnels this time around, not Lion

They catch feelings for each other, but Heather isn't as ready to ride as Holly is.

Pressure from her father as tensions between Thunder and Wind grow, Holly's growing investment in their relationship, and eventually the kittens getting lost following her, Heather breaks it off and stops seeing Holly.

When Sedge reveals the secret tunnels to Onestar, Heather was EXTREMELY uncomfortable that One immediately started planning to use it to attack ThunderClan

he was one of Breezepaw's friends who joined him on his dog-patrol, and feels bad he got in the most trouble when they were all part of the bad idea

She starts to develop a growing resentment for her father. He's unfair, he wants conflict when there doesn't need to be any, it's upsetting.

She does NOT join the Dark Forest though. She IS approached, but knows right away that this is bad news

Breezepelt's growing radicalization along with her old friends is concerning, but she doesn't know what to do without snitching

Yeah this is bad, but IMAGINE telling dad about this and seeing him do something drastic. She doesn't trust either side.

Onestar's not always the worst but she also doesn't feel like he reliably makes good choices.

Unlike canon, she is not a Breezepelt Stan after OotS. She doesn't trust him, for good reason. However, she is more sympathetic to his conspirators. Especially Sunstrike, who was so badly wounded in the battle that exiling her could have been a death sentence.

Heathertail in AVoS

She is a main character in AVoS this time around.

Her narrative use is to be the inside voice of WindClan. She's there to see how Onestar grows increasingly paranoid, and to point out his cruelty as he refuses to aid ShadowClan, and how this eventually leads to Darktail assuming control of it.

This is important because The Kin starts as a small problem. The point here is that the fall of ShadowClan could have been avoided if pigheaded Clan isolationism hadn't gotten in the way.

This directly leads to the Law of the Lake at the end of this arc-- that all Clans have a responsibility to preserve the others.

But, back to the story

The first members of WindClan who join the Kin are Known Halfclans and Dark Forest trainees. Cats who feel ostracized. Breezepelt is the very first, Sedgewhisker probably joins next.

(Adding a bit of depth to Sedge by saying that Gorsetail fumbled her secret and spilled the beans about Beechfur)

That causes the treatment of the deputy Harespring, the elder Sunstrike, and her mate Furzepelt to get worse, though they keep trying to prove their loyalty at first.

ONESTAR is not the one who makes his confession. Darktail pushes him and pushes him, trying to goad him into admitting it, finally revealing his pedigree after a point I haven't worked out yet.

And it's at this point he recruits Heathertail directly.

Heathertail joins The Kin, wanting to know more, and to hear out the other side of her father's legacy

Unfortunately, this was a trap. Darktail wants to hurt Onestar and the minute he feels Heathertail 'betrays' him in some way, she's in the same boat

She rekindles her friendship with Breezepelt in the meanwhile

Dark keeps Heather around for a while until some minor infraction pops up, and he uses this to execute her and a bunch of others (probably talking to cats outside of The Kin, maybe even Onestar himself and Darktail says this is spying)

And this becomes the moment where Breezepelt makes his dramatic turn.

"Execution? But, you said... you said you only wanted to show her the truth, not hurt her??"

"This is our truth. Breezepelt, you understand it better than anyone-- you want to bring the same pain to your own father as I'm about to do to my treacherous blood-kin."

Breeze has a moment here, realizing that he DOESN'T want to be Darktail and Heathertail doesn't deserve this

He has more to work through but right now those are the two major things

Heathertail escapes with several others including Breezepelt, back to WindClan.

After this, she's a huge proponent for SkyClan's inclusion at the lake. She is probably a major reason why the Law of the Lake is passed, cutting through general fear and xenophobia to remind everyone that The Kin never would have gotten as big as it did if the Clans had not allowed ShadowClan to falter.

The Clans need some good peppering of characters who make reasonable, diplomatic arbiters who are good at public speaking. That's how I'm seeing Heather.

[exocynraku]

Ravensong (ravenpaw). Med cats are allowed relationships, but some cats have a problem with him loving a rogue. He confides in Fireheart and Graystripe sooner, allowing them to help protect him more. He still leaves for a moon when Tigerclaw insinuates that he is a traitor, but it allows him to grow closer to Barley. He wasn’t sure if he wanted to come back, but Yellowfang saw him on her way to the Moonstone and they talked, and eventually he agreed to come back and continue on as her apprentice

THIS is awesome!!! - ravenkit is apprenticed to spottedleaf - he tries to save redtail when tigerclaw brings him into camp, but is unable to - blah blah blah he gets his med cat name, ravensong - one time, he needed to go to windclan for a herb. on his way there he meets this nice rouge/loner named barley. they talk for a bit until ravensong remembers what hes supposed to be doing and leaves - while he leaves, barley calls out to him, and says to meet him at the barn sometime soon. raven knows this is probably a bad idea but he goes anyway - they date (?) for a while, but fireheart and greystripe are starting to get suspicious about why his herb quests are taking longer and longer - raven tells fire and grey about whats going on, and grey tells him thats he's in a code breaking relationship too! - everything goes well for a bit until tigerclaw sees raven and barley together!! he goes and tells the whole clan about it!! - really the old cats who care about this are tigerclaw and darkstripe. no one else in the clan really cares. bluestar also doesnt care LOL - tigerclaw is really upset about the fact bluestar doesnt care, so he starts to threaten raven. raven is deathly afraid of tiger so hes very split on what he wants to do. - at first he decides he needs to be strong and take care of his clan but after he overhears darkstripe and tiger talking about their plan to kill him and barley, he decides its time to leave. - the only cats he tells are grey, fire and blue (not about the murder plan, but about the fact hes leaving). they make up the story that he was killed by shadowclan - before he leaves though, he teaches fire everything he can about medicine. fire get a new, temporary part time job: med cat - raven knows except where he's going now. straight to barley, so he can be safe there - raven are barley live together for quite some time, getting very close. - even though raven is happy with barley, he knows thats he should probably go back to clans.. but he also doesnt want to cuz hes still afraid of tiger. - he decides to go to the moonstone for guidance. maybe starclan can help him. - now that yellowfang is here, fire stops being a temporary med cat and goes back to a full time warrior - during this, fire accidentally lets it slip to yellowfang that raven isnt dead. yellowfang thinks he should come back baecause 1: she needs an apprentice and 2: brokenstar is dead and tiger has been exiled so he would be safe again. she doesnt know what to do so she goes to the moonstone for starclans advice - yellow sees raven, but doesnt realize who he is at first. only after she realizes theyre both going to the moonstone does she go over and talk to him - raven is kinda scared of her at first cuz big scary lady ahh!!!! but shes really nice to him so he warms up quick - she tells him who she is and informs him that thunderclan misses him, and that tiger is gone - when he hears that tiger is gone, he immediately decides to go back. but first, he tells barley - barley understands, and says raven came come and stay with him whenever he pleases - raven goes back with yellow and the whole clan is shocked. (except for fire, grey and blue). ravens family is very very happy to see him home. - raven becomes yellows apprentice (kinda. he already knows most of the herbs but theres still a few things hes not sure about). - raven sees yellow as a mother and cinderpaw as a sister. - he helps train cinderpelt after yellow dies. he still visits barley often, sometimes leaving for a few days to go stay with him. firestar doesnt mind - he serves as a med cat for quite a while but when the clans decide to leave for the lake, he decides that he's stepping down from his med cat position to stay with barley - firestar and the rest of thunderclan are very upset, especially cinderpelt but hes able to convice them all - he bids farewell to the clans and goes on to live the rest of his life with barley <3 i dont have an "other stuff" for this one. this au is really cute, and med cat ravenpaw is a very smart idea

[foxstride]

Redstar AU

occupying space in my head where it shouldn't be so here's some notes to get it out - completely free to use as inspiration (pls link me if you do Anything with this just because i'd love to see!)

Bluestar leads the patrol to Sunningrocks, Oakheart is killed by the rocks while fighting Mousefur

While Bluestar is shocked and mourning Oakheart, a RiverClan warrior (Stonefur would be interesting, rage-induced while mourning)

Redtail appoints Lionheart as his deputy, because he knows that he's the best choice, and is much more wary of Tigerclaw than Bluestar even was

He assigns Rosetail to be Firepaw's mentor

Goes to the Moonstone with Spottedleaf to get his nine lives (no order: Bluestar, Leopardfoot, Poppydawn, Swiftbreeze, Adderfang, Sunstar, Featherwhisker, Squirrelwhisker, Doestar)

RiverClan claim Sunningrocks, Redstar refuses to defend it and forbids Tigerclaw from fighting for it, instead focusing on rebuilding the Clan and feeding their Clanmates

Yellowfang is driven out of their territory by Tigerclaw

When WindClan is exiled, Redstar ups defence training of all warriors and fortifies the camp further, realising they can't trust RiverClan to be their allies even against Brokenstar

he considers trading Sunningrocks for RiverClan allying them but Spottedleaf talks him out of it

when ShadowClan attack the camp, he's still there and they manage to defend it, Rosetail doesn't die but Lionheart is injured gravely

while Lionheart recovers, Redstar appoints Rosetail to be temporary deputy and has Tigerclaw carry out the final assessments for Sandpaw, Dustpaw, and Ravenpaw

Tigerclaw claims Ravenpaw doesn't pass but a few days later he brings back an adder, Redstar has Whitestorm watch Ravenpaw instead and confers with Rosetail on the apprentices' progress

Sandpaw, Dustpaw, and Ravenpaw are made warriors: Sandstorm (for Whitestorm), Dustpelt, Ravenwing OR Ravenheart

once the camp is repaired and Lionheart has recovered, they plot to figure out how to deal with Brokenstar: Tigerclaw demands attacking their camp, Rosetail advises reinforcing the borders, and Lionheart wants to focus on defence. Redstar agrees with both Rosetail and Lionheart

Clawface sneaks in to steal kits but is caught by Rosetail; he's held prisoner in camp and Redstar sends a message to Brokenstar that they will give him back his warrior ONLY if he steps down as leader - this is an impossible request, but it buys them enough time to interrogate Clawface (Tigerclaw is the interrogator) and learns that ShadowClan's strength lies in its kits and what happened to the elders

Redstar sends Tigerclaw, Lionheart, Sandstorm, and Mousefur into ShadowClan territory to search for the elders - they find Nightpelt and discuss strategy and report back. Redstar agrees that they should drive out Brokenstar, but Clawface overhears and manages to escape

they decide to attack under the claw-moon, knowing they don't have much time, and Redstar sends Tigerclaw and Lionheart to the ShadowClan elders to have them prepared

Tigerclaw kills Lionheart once in ShadowClan territory, this is his first murder. he covers himself in some of Lionheart's blood and goes to the ShadowClan elders, claiming that he and Lionheart were attacked by a ShadowClan patrol, and readies them for battle

Redstar leaves Rosetail, Longtail, Dustpelt, Ravenwing/heart, Firepaw, Greypaw, and the queens and elders to guard camp. Once the attack patrol leaves, Firepaw and Greypaw stuff the gorse tunnel with thorns and branches so it's harder to get through

Redstar leads the attack patrol to ShadowClan's territory, sending Sandstorm to the elders; she finds Lionheart's body on the way and notes that the only fresh scent on him is Tigerclaw's. she reaches the elders and they go to attack

they successfully drive out Brokenstar, stealing one of his lives and killing Clawface and several other warriors

Nightpelt takes over ShadowClan and Redstar leads ThunderClan back home, only to find that Brokenstar left the territory and immediately attacked in retaliation; Firepaw and Greypaw are fending them off and the other warriors are almost overwhelmed

the attack patrol attacks the rogues and drives them out; Brokenstar is chased by Firepaw and Redtail, but is trapped by Yellowfang who, on being caught up, reveals that Brokenstar should never have been born, as the kit of a medicine cat

Redstar corrects her that Brokenstar being born means nothing, as every kit is innocent and has the potential to do great, and instead Brokenstar forged his own evil path

Brokenstar attacks Yellowfang, she and Firepaw kill him in defence of her

Redstar takes the two back to camp and asks where Lionheart is - on being told the story of the patrol ambush, he mourns Lionheart and appoints Rosetail deputy - he notices Tigerclaw's frustration, and that Sandstorm seems uneasy, but he tries to change the mood by asking Whitestorm and Rosetail to carry out assessments of Firepaw and Greypaw to ensure their hunting skills are as well as their fighting skills, because they might be close to being warriors

book 1 ends

book 1 begins

Sandstorm tells Redstar what she found when she discovered Lionheart's body, and he agrees that it's suspicious but without his body they have no proof

Redstar goes to the ShadowClan border to request that they be able to find Lionheart's body and take him back home, but Nightpelt refuses and says that they will get his body - so they still have no proof

the idea of finding WindClan is drifted around the camp and Redstar contemplates who to send, because ShadowClan might still be a threat and they don't know about RiverClan

Yellowfang continues to stay with ThunderClan, and begins picking up warrior duties; Longtail is given Swiftpaw as an apprentice and Mousefur is made mentor of Lynxpaw

at the Gathering, RiverClan and ShadowClan argue for WindClan not to be returned, but Redstar argues for it and convinces Nightstar to remember what it felt like to be driven out of his own camp and Clan. RiverClan still refuse

Redstar decides to send Sandstorm, Dustpelt, and Ravenwing/heart to find WindClan, because they know WindClan's scent and they need their strongest warriors to defend camp. he tells them not to go too far, and to ask the barn cats for help, and sends them to Spottedleaf for herbs

after the journeying cats have gone, he tries to talk to Crookedstar again, but RiverClan refuse to help and warn them off, Redstar thinks they're hungry and points out that they already have Sunningrocks, why do they need WindClan's territory? and he's never seen RiverClan warriors hunt on Sunningrocks, only sunbathe. RiverClan ignore him

Firepaw and Greypaw are made warriors: Fireblaze and Greystripe

some time later, the young warriors are coming back when Tigerclaw brings Brokenstar's exiled warriors to the camp, knowing that ThunderClan is weakened

Rosetail is killed, Redstar loses TWO lives in the battle, but Sandstorm, Dustpelt, and Ravenwing/heart return in time and help finish the battle with Yellowfang pinning down Tigerclaw

Tigerclaw is exiled, along with Darkstripe, though he asks Goldenflower and Longtail to go with - they refuse

Mousefur is made deputy, Cinderpaw is apprenticed to Yellowfang, recognising her as a true ThunderClan warrior, and Brackenpaw is apprenticed to Goldenflower

RiverClan and ShadowClan attack WindClan, along with Tigerclaw (on his own, trying to weasel into favour); ThunderClan arrive to help in time and drive ShadowClan out, and tell them that Tigerclaw brought Brokenstar's rogues to attack his own Clanmates

RiverClan is harder to defeat, but Crookedstar loses his second to last life and calls a retreat

knowing now that RiverClan is weakening, Redstar ups battle training and sends two patrols to retake Sunningrocks, and then wait for them there

Crookedstar and Leopardfur arrive at Sunningrocks and threaten battle, but Redstar instead proposes that RiverClan can fish in the river, but not hunt on the ground, and they will share. His proposition is: they will share Sunningrocks, RiverClan will mark along the river and ThunderClan will mark along the trees, but the rocks themselves will be shared. ThunderClan can flush prey out of the rocks but will only kill prey on their own territory, and they can share the rocks together

eventually, this is agreed to

now that RiverClan has been dealt with, Redstar turns his attention back to Tigerclaw: they know that he and the rogues will still be around, so they need to find a way of either luring him out or chasing him out for good

not sure if i'll continue this or not

[needlewind]

The Barn AU

So, I’ll be honest with you this AU kind of came out of no where but I’m... kind of in love with it now.

This AU pretty much destroys canon from the very beginning.

Into The Wild goes as planned except Sandstorm and Dustpelt become warriors alongside Graystripe and Fireheart. Also Sandstorm isn’t nearly as cruel to Fireheart and Graystripe and while Ravenpaw runs away it’s made clear Fire/Gray/Sand/Raven are a thing.

Fire and Ice is when we begin really changing shit. Brackenkit and Cinderkit stay kits who aren’t apprenticed to early. Graystripe still falls in love with Silverstream but he ropes Fireheart and Sandstorm into it so we get Fire/Gray/Sand/Silver.

With two of their partners in places where they can’t date them while still in Thunderclan, Fire, Gray, and Sand come up with the idea of moving into the barn with Raven and Barley. They of course invite Silverstream who longs for adventure outside of the clans and wants to be with her partners.

So everyone separates from the clans and moves into the barn. We work into a full polycule with Fire/Gray/Sand/Silver/Raven/Barley and it becomes clear Sand and Silver are pregnant with Fire and Gray’s kits respectively

Silver still dies while kitting, going into unexpected labor while out with Gray, Fire and Barley. Sand gives birth to her kits at the same time while in the barn with Raven but obviously she lives and Sand and Raven don’t find out Silver is dead until the others return.

Sand nurses Featherkit, Stormkit, Squirrelkit, Streamkit (Leafkit who was named after Silverstream rather then Leafstar who doesn’t exist in this au or fucking Spottedleaf) and eventually Cloudkit who Fireheart receives from Princess after visiting her just as he does in Forest of Secrets.

Tigerclaw does the dog thing but he does it without getting exiled from Thunderclan. Then he tries attacking Bluestar and Bluestar fucking kills him, putting the problem to rest so no one has to worry about it. Though he could also have been killed by Scouge while trying to make a deal or something. Admittedly, it doesn’t really matter. Point is, bitch is dead.

Featherpaw is still called on the journey, sneaking out after receiving prophetic dreams. Her siblings all end up following her and long story short, Brambleclaw and Tawnypelt end up getting stuck on a journey to the ocean with six apprentices.

Sharptooth isn’t a thing because I say so and as such no one dies on the journey. Though at some point Featherpaw does get some pretty severe injuries (maybe from trying to catch a hawk with the prey-hunters or something).

Stormpaw and Brook (who is also younger in this au) fall in love like in canon but instead of Storm moving in with Brook, Brook comes with Storm to the barn to stay with him.

Crowpaw and Featherpaw fall for each other and when the group gets back Crowpaw decides to join the other apprentices in the barn (it’s not like Windclan ever treated him particularly well anyway). The polycule welcomes him and gives everyone warrior names (Crow is insistent on the Feather suffix cuz he’s a fucking sap).

Brambleclaw and Tawnypelt are the ones who handle convincing the clans they gotta leave and like in the new prophecy (pretty sure it’s in Dawn) the clan cats stay in the barn for a few nights to prepare for the full journey.

When the clan cats leave a few stay behind. Dustpelt and Ferncloud along with Birchkit, Larchkit, and Hollykit (because they’re afraid for their kits survival on the journey as they should be and Dustpelt doesn’t want to leave his best friend and brother behind). Shrewtail (Shrewpaw who lived from the accident with the pheasant he’s just got a messed up leg, think Cinderpelt but a front leg) because well, his parents are staying with his younger siblings and he’s infatuated with Squirrelflight. Lostface (the dog incident happens but Fireheart isn’t wasn’t there to rename her), Swiftscar (he lived the attack but he’s fucking covered in scars and he’s missing a tail and leg) who both find themselves enamored with Cloudtail and their daughter Whitepaw also stays. Sorretail also stays, finding interest in Streamheart.

Streamheart also learns a sufficient amount of medicine from the different medicine cats in each clan after showing interest in the subject before the clans leave.

After the clans leave things sort of just... progress slowly. Fern and Dust’s second litter all live and they have Foxleap and Icecloud once the three earn their warrior names (Birchfall ofc, Larchwing and Hollywhisker). Though Hollywhisker dies at some point just before Feathertail has Crowfeather’s kits which end up being the three and they named Hollykit after her.

Jayfeather, Lionblaze and Hollyleaf are all named and because the three prophecy isn’t rlly a thing and they were never lied to or anything they a) don’t have powers and b) Hollyleaf doesn’t die ridiculously early

Breezepelt is also born at some point to Feathertail and Crowfeather, though whether it’s with the three or a separate litter is undecided and doesn’t particularly matter. Either way in this one he’s not nearly as much of a dick.

Birchfall and Whitewing have Dovekit and Ivykit together.

Graystripe meets Millie who moves with her housefolk somewhere nearby and she gets intergrated into the polycule where they eventually have Bumblekit, Blossomkit, and Briarkit

Stormfur and Brook have Larkkit, Breezekit, Pinekit, and Featherkit (unlike the other similar names this isn’t done because Feathertail is dead. Storm just really loves his sister).

Shrewtail and Squirrelflight have Alderkit, Juniperkit, Dandelionkit, and Sparkkit (and no one dies)

Lostface and Cloudtail have Amberkit, Snowkit and Dewkit.

Streamheart also passes down the information on herbs she gained meaning that many of the cats understand it (Lostface and Swiftscar also help having been locked in the medicine cat den for quite awhile).

Alderheart also finds Twigkit and Violetkit at some point but they’re just kits who were abandoned that he takes in to raise (maybe with Velvet though I don’t know enough about her to confidently add that in).

Essentially the barn cats sort of just grow on their own and become a group a bit like the sisters in that every cat sort of acts like the kits parents. They let in outsiders freely and it’s sort of it’s own peaceful little society. Because of the peace there’s little death and carnage as well so cats live for long periods of time (Ravenpaw’s cancer is a myth here, it doesn’t exist, begone angst).

[goatpaste]

AU set to "SIX" from the Six musical where Appledusk had mates in all the clans because that is just how shitty he is- Extra song link sksksksks: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wTvRNwslYxA

He had Reedshine in Riverclan, Mapleshade in Thunderclan, three in Windclan because Windclan's territory is so large that it was easy to avoid being seen by anyone, and one in Shadowclan.

Mapleshade was pregnant this time when she is exiled from Thunderclan. She panics trying to think of where to go, and she can feel that Frecklewish and a patrol are following her to make sure she leaves. Desperate and thinking Appledusk is faithful, she starts to cross the river. There was no wave when she first crossed, but the storm was so bad that even trees were being tipped in the wind. One with loose roots fell a little ways from her and caused a wave that almost drowns her before she is saved by two Riverclan toms. Appledusk is not on the patrol. Mapleshade has a permanent scar from the rocks, on the side of her head. Luckily, she got away without any physical brain damage.

Reedshine was horrified to find out about his cheating and asked if Thunderclan is where he's constantly sneaking off to. This is where he pathetically admits and apologizes, that he has multiple mates. He claims that when Reedshine was found to be pregnant, he began meeting with Mapleshade. He got annoyed with her because she was quite emotional, Thunderclan had just lost Birchface, Flowerpaw, and their old medicine cat, all of which Mapleshade was very close to considering she had no living biological family. -- He never told her that he was the one to kill Birchface, and Thunderclan thought it was best for her at that point to not find out when they returned from the battle without them, so she never knew until now.

Darkstar is disgusted and demands that he tell Maple and Reed the names of these other cats. So he does.

Darkstar and Reedshine were always close friends, Reedshine having always wanted kits and helped take care of Perchkit when Darkstar had him. The leader offers Mapleshade a place in Riverclan, even if she only wants it until she's healed, and then decides to leave to live a calmer life, and offers to exile Appledusk if Reedshine wishes it.

Reedshine says no as Mapleshade shyly turns down the kind offer, and steps closer to the Thunderclan queen, resting a paw gently on her freezing shoulder.

"I love my clan, and I love my Clanmates and you, Darkstar.. but Appledusk can stay if you would want him to." She glances down at Mapleshade and gives an encouraging smile. "We're leaving. Both of us, together. Where we can raise our kits together and give them a life free of battles and fear."

Mapleshade agrees, suddenly feeling a little less freezing at Reedshine's presence.

They stay there until morning, Mapleshade feels warmer and Reedshine and her say goodbye to everyone before they leave. Reedshine is told by her Clanmates that they'll miss her, and they wish both of them good luck. Darkstar escorts them to the border. "I suppose I won't see you again, so I'll congratulate you on your kits now. I know both of you will make fine mothers."

They're crossing through Fourtrees when Reedshine, ever optimistic, gets an idea. They'll visit all the clans, find out who these other cats are, and ask if they'd like to join them! She tells a rather cautious Mapleshade that if these other cats get found out, then their leaders may exile them anyway, and they couldn't let that happen when it's all Appledusk's fault!

They visit Shadowclan first, as Windclan is where they can leave clan territory to find their own far away.

At first, Shadowclan is hostile, but they calm down when both of them swear they mean no harm and see that they're both expecting kits. They explain when the leader calls the clan together, and Appledusk's shadowclan mate is shocked. Shadowclan's leader reprimands her for having a halfclan relationship, and when other cats also begin calling her a traitor, she agrees to leave with them.

The trio heads to Windclan, where they do the same thing, saying they mean no harm and explain what happened with Appledusk. The three she-cats he had been seeing are shocked that he would do such a thing, saying that he had told them he'd loved them and that he would do anything for them. The two she-cats talk it over for a while and decide that they will leave with the other three.

The group travels, bonding into one little family on their journey and looking out for each other, each using their clan ability to find them all food and help each other out until they find a place to call home, an open windclan-like field with flowers and a river and a small wooded shady area, the smell of rabbits and prey is strong in the air and hostile cats are nowhere to be found. The group decides it's perfect.

One of the Windclan trio has knowledge as a medicine cat, as they find out on the journey when she tells them a story of when she spent moons in the medicine den helping out because of an accident where she almost died from a wound in battle.

Soon enough, Reedshine and Mapleshade have their kits, and the litters grow up seeing each other as siblings, with all of the others being just as motherly toward them as queens helping each other in the clans.

After settling in, they talk about Appledusk, and now they tell the story for laughs, finding it hilarious that the tom screwed up so badly and knew it the entire time, but ended up making all of them so happy in their little group together when he pushed too far with his secret.

dont got a lot to add on, this does seem neat

i was also thinking near the end in an AU like this it be a little fun having maple and reed becoming the start of The Sisters